David Finlay's race book – Beemer gets the spectators beaming

Scottish motoring journalist DAVID FINLAY is taking on a challenge to compete in hillclimbs across the UK in a different car each time. Here, he reports on how he got on in his latest event of the season last weekend…

AFTER a long summer break, the Primo plc Multi Vehicle Insurance/Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes Hillclimb Challenge restarted last weekend at Shelsley Walsh, where hillclimbs have been held since 1905.

My car for this event was a BMW 540i xDrive M Sport. Not the most obvious for choice for competition driving, you might think, but I had a feeling its four-wheel drive and fast-shifting automatic gearbox from the German marque would work to my advantage.

They certainly did. I knew there was no chance of keeping up with some of the cars in the class, such as a Porsche 911 GT3, a Toyota Celica GT4 or a Subaru Impreza reputed to be producing about 700bhp.

But the BMW, which I had already found to be a relaxing motorway cruiser and surprisingly nimble on country roads, performed very well at the famous Worcestershire venue.

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For most of the meeting, it ran in fourth place – to the surprise and delight of spectators who told me they didn’t think a 5 Series could go so quickly.

To my shame, I messed things up on the final run. The most important corner at Shelsley is called Bottom Ess and I was a bit ambitious about where I could brake for it. Coming in too quickly, I slithered round on completely the wrong line and lost valuable 10ths of a second.

My friend Peter Herbert, waiting to line up for his run, heard about this over the commentary and took full advantage, recording a 35.07-second run in his 911 to beat my 35.33 and drop me down to fifth.

That was annoying but, as I left Shelsley, I thought I’d rather lose a place through trying too hard rather than not trying hard enough.